A new life in Tuscany – Greening

I have been reclining like a Roman at a banquet for a while now. I am having treatment to re-align the tail of my spine and am confident that before long it will settle down, but presently it is tender. Walking is fine, but sitting is not, so time in front of my computer is shortlived and my plans to create more pages are on hold. I will have a go at this in bursts, then retreat to the sofa and languish on a hot water bottle which is lovely. I left it for a moment earlier and came back to find Snowy lying on her back along the length of it, paws in the air, eyes closed, bliss.

Spring is positively rushing forward now, it is so much warmer, showery and growy and the grass seems taller every day. Wild flowers are everywhere, purple patches of violets stand out from the crowd, there is a clamour of birdsong and butterflies dance across the garden. In the evening deer are grazing on new grass on the lower terraces, ready to spring back into the trees at sight or sound of me. The warty looking old toad is back under the wooden cover of the meter on the gas tank, hopping into the grass when I disturb him.

Outside my bedroom window and so close I can almost touch it the bare branches of the apricot tree are now covered in the palest pink blossom. It is the first thing I see when I look out in the morning, and the last when I take a few deep breaths at the open window before bed. It is lovely to see that in the mornings there are bees busy around the flowers.

It is clear that in Europe numbers are falling and probable causes are still being considered. Italy has made headway here, after decreasing numbers over a decade appeared to have a link to the use of corn seed soaked in pesticide. It was banned temporarily, and a year on the reports are that bees have made a terrific come back, so hopefully that will mean a permanent ban and a lead for other countries with declining bee populations. Here in northern Tuscany, away from large scale agriculture, they appear to be thriving.

Ecological awareness in Italy exceeds the European average, possibly due in part to it’s wonderful heritage. Green issues are high on the list of popular social concerns, only overtaken currently by unemployment and the effects of the recession. An independent organisation, Legambiente, has regional branches and over a thousand local groups, including one in Barga, and has paved the way for environmental voluntary work. It is also a powerful and challenging voice creating awareness.

The world heard about Naples and the waste crisis and though Berlusconi swept into power and appeared to have tackled it the problem continues. A significant element is due to major trafficking of industrial waste from the densely populated North down to the South, controlled by the mafia, where it is disposed of dangerously. Legambiente’s recent report illustrates that it is ten times cheaper to dispose of waste illegally and private investment in legal waste management is severely hampered by government ’s complex administration systems, so the only light on the horizon currently is  a slap on the wrist from the EU and a demand to clean up or else it’s legal action. It is a painful reflection on the gap between North and South that one should be used as a rubbish dump by the the other.

Here in the hills of Tuscany we are sheltered from the reality that Italy is now primarily industrial and somewhere between the fourth and the seventh largest market economy, depending on which current report you read. Tourism is significant but manufacturing is king. So it is in the industrial North that there is the most progress. I have seen reports that say between 50 and 75% of waste is re-cycled, as opposed to about 10% in the South. As well as the usual waste bins I noticed brown ones in town recently too, for food waste only, so that it can be converted into fertiliser, which I think is fantastic and I hope it is rolled out everywhere.

Italy currently imports 80% of its energy and the government announced in 2008 that it planned to re-commence the nuclear power programme that had been shelved. Building is due to start in 2013, though it is opposed by several regions and there is now a wrangle to identify whether they have a legal right to a say in where reactors may be built.

The EU driven requirement to meet clean energy targets has created an environment where innovation is encouraged. This month the government have approved the building of the largest solar power plant in Europe in Rovigo, between Venice and Bologna. It will be complete in six months (possibly…) and create enough power to supply 17,000 homes. Until recently Italy had the most generous subsidies in Europe for the use of solar photovoltaic panels, but due to the recession and belt tightening they are now being cut by 20%, then more ongoing.

Wind power has been used in Tuscany since the sixteenth century when Renaissance engineers, and Leonardo da Vinci no doubt, designed mills to grind grain and gunpowder. It became a commercial operation much earlier than most other nations and today it produces 1% of the country’s energy needs. Apparently the current total world supply would nicely fill Italy’s entire energy requirements per year, which would be neat, but happily the trend is that capacity doubles every three years.

I am aiming to use geothermal energy. The way it works is that I produce my own, sell it to Enel, the national power company, then what I use will be deducted from my credit with them. Hopefully the one balances out the other. Tuscany is a geologically active area with hot granite rocks lying unusually close to the surface so it is well disposed to make intelligent use of the earth’s heat. In fact the first commercial plant in the world was set up here in 1904 and today it provides for a quarter of Tuscany’s needs.

How, and why, did I come by all this stuff? Because I am interested, I noodle about wanting to know what is available, what we are doing, because it matters. I want whatever I do in creating my own home and living my life to be as easy on the earth as it can be. I am looking out tonight at the apricot blossom in moonlight. Each little flower is a soft, pale shape on its slender branch, held in silver light against a deep blue sky scattered with stars. Nothing could be more beautiful. Nothing could be more important than keeping it that way.

I’ve always felt at home in Italy, with the people, their culture, the landscape and the climate. At sixty I was ready to retire from work, but not from life, so I came to Tuscany and began again, the Italian way. – Liz Taylor – more articles on A new life in Tuscany